There’s a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) “called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85% for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit.” The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah! Today, the…
China’s Superior Economic Model The free-market fundamentalist economic model is being thrown onto the trash heap of history. “The conservative-preferred, free-market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model—so successful in the 20th century—is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century. In an era when countries need to become economic teams, Team USA’s results—a jobless…
Republicans, “moderate” Dems, and their corporate allies manufactured a budget crisis by handing out tax giveaways to the rich, by wasting trillions of dollars on unnecessary wars, by widespread corruption, and by recklessly deregulating and bailing out Wall Street, Big Oil, and other corporations. Washington State, which has one of the most regressive tax systems…
Can the further Left (Occupiers, anarchists, and Socialists) work, in some fashion, with the nearer Left (progressive Democrats, Labor, and groups like MoveOn.org)? Can the Occupy Movement work with allies without feeling co-opted? [Note: I posted this at OpEdNews as well; see the numerous comments there.   An earlier name for this article was “On Occupying…
Kudos to Gov Gregoire for having the guts to propose a 1/2 cent sales tax hike to help cover the expected $2 billion state revenue shortfall. The Seattle P-I reports the governor as saying, “I can’t stomach the cuts, I can’t. I can’t cut education more.” But the sales tax is highly regressive. Far better…
“We will occupy our state capitol in Olympia during the special legislative session, and we will tell our lawmakers that we have had enough. … It’s time for the richest 1 percent to pay their fair share to help fix our economy. Big banks and large corporations benefit from outdated tax loopholes while our communities…
Update: ‘Occupy’ crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials Keith Olbermann and filmmaker and activist Michael Moore discuss who’s coordinating the attacks on Occupy encampments: Michael Moore on ‘Occupy’ crackdowns
Will the Occupy movement be able to work with others? Will the Occupy movement be co-opted? The Stranger is reporting in Occupy Seattle Disrupts Pro–Occupy Wall Street Forum, Drives Away Supporters.: No sooner had six panelists finished opening remarks last Saturday evening than a woman scampered onstage and yelled, “Mic check!” It was an orchestrated…